Ghanaian reporter wins FPA Media Award
Their investigation exposing conmen masquerading as agents in African football edged out stiff competition from the UK's Observer Newspaper and Bloomberg TV of the United States to win the award at the event, held on 25 November 2008, presided over by the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles.
The investigation received worldwide acclaim as fake agents in Nigeria were exposed for exploiting many poor young African footballers who were conned out of thousands of dollars in the sophisticated scam.
This year's ceremony at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel in central London marked the 120th anniversary of the FPA, which was founded in 1888 to help journalists from across the globe report on events.
Daara joined the BBC in 2004 after working with Choice FM in Accra and also as the Ghana correspondent for South African broadcaster SABC TV Africa.
He has secured exclusive interviews with leaders in world football from FIFA president Sepp Blatter, CAF boss Issa Hayatou and UEFA president Michel Platini as well as German legends Franz Benkenbauer and Lothar Matthaus.
The Ghanaian has also interviewed almost all of Africa's top players of the present and past generations including George Weah, Abedi Pele, Samuel Eto'o, Stephen Appiah, Michael Essien, Emmanuel Adebayor and Amr Zaki.
Daara gained international prominence in 2001 when his personal appeal to FIFA earned Ghanaian goalkeeper Sumaila Abdallah the FIFA Fair Play Award for saving an opponent's life during a game through mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
His tremendous reporting and humanity at the Accra Sports Stadium on 9th May, 2001 when 126 fans perished during a local league game was also highly praised.
While reporters and fans rushed home to watch a UEFA Champions League game on television immediately after the infamous match between arch-rivals Hearts of Oak and Kotoko, Daara stayed behind to discover the gory sight.
He broke the news on radio with a brief report before joining the few fans at the stadium to give first aid to the injured and helped to evacuate the dead as the emergency services delayed in arriving.
Daara graduated from Cardiff University with an MA in International Journalism where he wrote a thesis on: "The exploitation of African footballers in Europe".
